Arsenal vs Manchester City: Against the usual backdrop of criticism, Raheem Sterling makes his point in style

If people genuinely want to know why Sterling plays better for Manchester City than he does for England, then the answer was staring them in the face here at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon

It only took Raheem Sterling 14 minutes to get back up to speed, starting his season with a brilliant goal - the perfect start to Manchester City’s title defence. He celebrated by putting his finger to his right ear, a response to all the toxic criticism he gets, which after the World Cup only got worse.

Sterling was the best player on the pitch today: dangerous, elusive, incisive, hardly giving Arsenal a second of rest. It was difficult to remember that it was only four weeks ago when he looked exhausted in St Petersburg, running on empty in England’s third-place play-off defeat to Belgium. But even this performance, and this improvement, has typically been turned into a criticism of Sterling himself.

Because with Sterling playing so well this afternoon, people started pointedly asking why he did not play like this for England at the World Cup. That says a lot about the atmosphere surrounding Sterling and the way people pre-judge him. Because even when he does his job brilliantly, as he did here, it is used as a stick to beat him with.

Criticism like this is not made in good faith but if people genuinely want to know why Sterling plays better for Manchester City than he does for England, then the answer was staring them in the face here at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon. City are a better team than England, with better players and a better manager. This team is built on years of training and playing together and has reached a standard of high performance – 100 points in the Premier League – that has never been seen before in English football. They have a midfield so good that it does not always find room for Bernardo Silva, a player who would utterly transform the England team if he could somehow be re-nationalised.

At the World Cup Sterling ran himself into the ground trying to make things happen. England were desperately short of quality in midfield and that put more responsibility on Sterling to take opponents on with the ball, or run in behind without it, anything to spark something off. England were not exactly passing their way through the opposition.

But City are the best possession team in the world, and it is hard to think of an environment more geared towards elite performance from top players than this one. The roles are so clearly defined, the patterns and movements so intricate and so ingrained, the standards of every team-mate is so high. International teams do not play football like this.

Here Sterling was working in tandem with Benjamin Mendy down City’s left, and between the two of them they kept asking Arsenal questions they could not answer. They shut down Hector Bellerin, the only real source of width that Arsenal had. And they attacked as a pair too. Either Sterling would cut inside and Mendy would overlap, the traditional system, or Sterling would stay wide and Mendy would underlap inside him, a move that Arsenal looked utterly unprepared for.

Raheem Sterling was it his best against Arsenal (REUTERS)

Sterling’s brilliant first goal came when Mendy broke down the left and fed him the ball on the edge of the box. He wriggled away from Bellerin and Matteo Guendouzi, showing again how dangerous he is at beating opponents from a standing start. Then he whipped a shot around Sokratis and into the net, surprising Petr Cech with that short-backlift early finish that he has when he is playing his best.

The second goal, just when it looked as if City might throw away all their dominance, came from another Mendy and Sterling combination down the left. Mendy exchanged passes with Sterling, running forward inside of him, then pulled a pass to the back of the box where Bernardo Silva finished perfectly.

That was Sterling’s last action in the game and he was substituted soon after to a handful of boos from the home crowd. But he had already made his point and won City the game. He is back where he plays his best football and there is a whole season left to come.